We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Erin Pittinaro a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Erin , thanks for joining us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.
2008, I was a graduate student attending Syracuse University studying to become the next MSW (Master Social Worker). I was a small fish in a huge pond but that didn’t seem to bother me. I was determined to find my way. During the course of my time on campus, I met with and learned from various professors, some of which owned their own mental health private practice. This inspired me and I remember thinking “some day, maybe when I retire from a ‘real job’ I’ll start a private practice”
Flash forward about a dozen yearis later, and a lifetime of experiences: marriage, babies, home buying, climbing the career ladder in corporate America, I found myself struggling. Yes it was the year of COVID so the whole world seemed as though it was imploding, BUT there was something in that moment for me that I realized I was trying to be someone I wasn’t.
I was in therapy on and off, I thought I could outrun myself until I couln’t any longer. My marriage was on the rocks, my career felt like it was at a stand still, my social life felt toxic and nonexistent and I really didn’t like myself.
I decided that maybe I needed to do something different in order to get a different result; genius right? after all isnt that the definition of insanity; doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?
I had been in therapy, but this time I decided I would also hire a coach. This was a game changer. Talk about getting outside your comfort zone and doing things I never imaged; well, it yielded me a life I never imagined or could have dreamt up.
In 2021, I took the biggest risk of my life; I quit my coushie supervising job at a mental health clinic making decent money, and started my own business. As a wife, mom and CEO of my home I had NO choice but for this to work, so I went all in. My therapy practice grew ten fold, having clients on a wait list and then as I grew I had colleagues wanting support to grow their businesses. Enter a shift in my life. I became a mentor and a coach.
Coaching other women to break free from burnout and step in to their passion and purpose became not just a goal but a mission and purpose.
If I had never taken the risk to go out on my own, blood sweat and tears, 2000 hours of clinical work, tests and a whole lot of grinding I would have never discovered the world of coaching and what I was meant to do.
I took the risk, I believed and trusted in myself that if I fell I knew I could get back up and rise again.
I am so grateful I took the risk!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My bio would read:
Erin is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, healing professional and the CEO of The Alchemy Experience. She has made it her life’s mission to lead woman through an experience to self discovery through a perfect blend of psychology and energetics. The mind is capable of extraordinary things and together we can alchemize a life beyond your wildest dreams.
To unpack what that means here is a bit more about me…
I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. I have done many different roles as a social worker; child protective, emergency department, community care management, I have worked in the intensive care unit, outpatient medicine, outpatient mental health and with in a juvenile detention center.
Currently I own a mental health private practice providing individual and group/family therapy in NYS.
As my business has grown, I have had colleagues and other mental health providers inquiring in my business and asking for support in growing theirs. Initially this began as mentorship, however as I have grown as a person I have discovered a sense of self and purpose I didn’t know existed.
Through my growth, I realized I had created a process from burn out to badass. A process I have helped numerous other women through in their own self discovery and stepping in to their purpose.
The process from visualizing who we want to be, setting intentional goals and then taking the action steps to become that person. This became a brand, The Alchemy Experience. It is my coaching method; a full transformation at the identity level, learning how to release who we were to step in to who we are meant to be.
I embody this work and it is my passion and purpose to support others in their transformation.
This brand and business emerged through the very process I teach; visualizing, setting intentions and taking actions.
What sets me a part is that I am real, raw and relatable.
I am not your average coach or therapist, I am unconventional and create a space that allows others to feel safe diving in to their own goals, dreams, and fears. I have experience as a clinician and therapeutic background to help support others through a blend of energetics and psychology to really allow them to evolve in to their highest self.
I have created several courses: professional growth, personal growth as well as holding an in person retreat twice a year to build connections with other high level executive badass women.
I believe the full alchemising transformation requires releasing an old version of us to allow for us to step in to the new version, rising in to that new version with purpose and building a community around you that supports that version’s continued growth.
If anyone would like to work with me through my courses, masterclass, retreats or individual coaching they can visit my website https://alchemyexperience.square.site/ or reach out to me directly
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I am currently in the mist of an up level as we speak, I can feel it and the reason I know this is I have been here before and have learned this very lesson.
The lesson is that we need to rest and surrender. Sometimes we push ourselves, especially as executive women and moms to go more, do more, be more when in reality, we have to do what we can and then allow the universe to meet us. We have to trust and believe that who we are right now is getting us to who we are becoming and that rest is productive too
I recently forgot this lesson, pushed so hard through so many things in my business and personally when I was knocked on my behind and was sick for a good 24 hours. It was the universe forcing me to slow down because I was not making time for rest myself.
I feel like I have learned this a million times over, but with each new up level in to a new level as a mom and business owner comes the lesson at a new level.
I learned this in early motherhood, when my kids were babies and toddlers and I was working overnights and needed to learn how to slow down and take care of myself.
I learned this a few years ago when I left corporate America and launched in to my own business, making space for me and my self care as well as for family and work.
It’s a balance that is a complete illusion and if we are not careful time will consume us rather than us taking control of what we can and creating space.
I had to unlearn that if I grind harder, I will be more successful. The reality is the quality of my work and the quality of time spent with those I love is far more valuable than the quantity.
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
My initial business was founded on the desire to help people in different way. I was completely burned out from managing a team of other social workers an being told how I had to do, ultimately by higher ups that had no idea how to run the team.
I save funds through out a year of my life and then decided to start small and open up a mental health practice providing therapy to teens and. young adults. I saved every penny of this while I worked my day time job and over the course of a couple years I saved enough to invest in myself and was able to quit my full time gig and go full time in my practice.
Over 6 months I almost doubled my income and in the last year I almost tripled it.
As I grew other colleagues asked me what I was doing and how I was doing it. They wanted to know the secret and a new business was brewing. I started coaching other colleges for free at first but in the last two years I saved a portion of my income in my solo practice and set it aside funds to run programs, workshops and retreats for mental health providers and executive level women to start and scale their businesses.
It has not always been easy, and sometimes it has been scary BUT it has been so worth it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://alchemyexperience.square.site
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theerinpitt?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/erin.turnerpittinaro
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-pittinaro-lcsw-6694b395/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@the_erinpitt
- Other: my therapy practice also has a website:
https://www.erinpittinarocounseling.orgPodcast: This Life’s the Pitts
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-lifes-the-pitts/id1614539902
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-lifes-the-pitts/id1614539902
Image Credits
Erin Pittinaro